2019 Hugo short fiction
May. 26th, 2019 03:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
psocopteraFinally read The Only Harmless Great Thing, Brooke Bolander. Liked it more than I expected it to - did some clever stuff, even if I couldn't quite buy a couple of the linchpins.
I have now read all of the short fiction, so thoughts/ballots/predictions behind the cut.
So, first off, I like basically everything on the ballot in all three of these categories, and definitely don't actively dislike anything, which feels unusual and possibly unnatural. But here we are. All links to previous posts of mine about these works.
Novella
So, in order I read them, I liked Binti: The Night Masquerade a lot, I always heart Murderbot and Artificial Condition was no exception, The Black God's Drums was a delight and probably the thing I felt most driven to rec far and wide this year, Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach was just jam-packed with interesting stuff, The Tea Master and the Detective was interesting for being a pastiche in an established universe, and Beneath the Sugar Sky was the shocker of the ballot for my actually enjoying it. Unfortunately, something here has to actually get ranked into the last half and even the last place despite nothing obviously deserving that, so, my reluctant ranking:
1 - The Black God’s Drums, P. Djèlí Clark
2 - Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach, Kelly Robson
3 - Binti: The Night Masquerade, Nnedi Okorafor
4 - Artificial Condition, Martha Wells
5 - Beneath the Sugar Sky, Seanan McGuire
6 - The Tea Master and the Detective, Aliette de Bodard
I don't have a strong prediction but maybe Tea Master again (after picking up the Nebula). And that's fine, I enjoyed it, de Bodard is always a good read.
Novelette and Short Story
"The Thing About Ghost Stories" novelette and the short story nominees "The Tale of Three Beautiful Raptor Sisters" and "The Rose MacGregor Drinking and Admiration Society" were all in Uncanny between July and December, and I recced them here. Kritzer good with The Feels, Vernon and Bolander both made me laugh. "When We Were Starless" I described as "classic" (here) and "The Court Magician" as an interesting metaphor (here). "Nine Last Days on Planet Earth" was compelling (here) and one of my nominees; "A Witch's Guide to Escape" (recced here) was also one of my nominees. "Nine Negro Teeth" I pegged as a front-runner and "If at First You Don't Succeed" I loved and nominated, but as a short story, oops (both here). Only Harmless Great Thing I just talked about in this very post, leaving, uh, "Last Banquet of Temporal Confections", which didn't grab me enough to rec, and "STET", which I also didn't rec but discussed in the comments here and I have come to agree with the inclusion of on the ballot, like, even if I wasn't entirely sold on the plot, the experimental format was interesting and memorable. Is that everything? Why did I decide to mix short stories and novelettes in this paragraph? Oh, right, because they're mixed together in the original posts.
My novelette ballot. Oof, this is hard. I've swapped the order of the first two a couple of times.
1 - “If at First You Don’t Succeed, Try, Try Again,” Zen Cho
2 - “Nine Last Days on Planet Earth,” Daryl Gregory
3 - “The Thing About Ghost Stories,” by Naomi Kritzer
4 - The Only Harmless Great Thing, by Brooke Bolander
5 - “When We Were Starless,” by Simone Heller
6 - “The Last Banquet of Temporal Confections,” by Tina Connolly
Prediction: I will be astounded if Only Harmless Great Thing doesn't take this.
My short story ballot. Also hard. Does it make sense that I ended up ranking STET above stuff I actually recced? I don't know, it'd be a more interesting win than if we give it to the Vernon or Pinsker stories, I mean, I'm a big fan of both of them but they didn't feel like awards-standout stories.
1 - “A Witch’s Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies,” Alix E. Harrow
2 - “The Tale of the Three Beautiful Raptor Sisters, and the Prince Who Was Made of Meat,” Brooke Bolander
3 - “The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington,” P. Djèlí Clark
4 - “STET,” Sarah Gailey
5 - “The Rose MacGregor Drinking and Admiration Society,” T. Kingfisher
6 - “The Court Magician,” Sarah Pinsker
Prediction: "Nine Negro Teeth" again, but "STET" a close second.
I have now read all of the short fiction, so thoughts/ballots/predictions behind the cut.
So, first off, I like basically everything on the ballot in all three of these categories, and definitely don't actively dislike anything, which feels unusual and possibly unnatural. But here we are. All links to previous posts of mine about these works.
Novella
So, in order I read them, I liked Binti: The Night Masquerade a lot, I always heart Murderbot and Artificial Condition was no exception, The Black God's Drums was a delight and probably the thing I felt most driven to rec far and wide this year, Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach was just jam-packed with interesting stuff, The Tea Master and the Detective was interesting for being a pastiche in an established universe, and Beneath the Sugar Sky was the shocker of the ballot for my actually enjoying it. Unfortunately, something here has to actually get ranked into the last half and even the last place despite nothing obviously deserving that, so, my reluctant ranking:
1 - The Black God’s Drums, P. Djèlí Clark
2 - Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach, Kelly Robson
3 - Binti: The Night Masquerade, Nnedi Okorafor
4 - Artificial Condition, Martha Wells
5 - Beneath the Sugar Sky, Seanan McGuire
6 - The Tea Master and the Detective, Aliette de Bodard
I don't have a strong prediction but maybe Tea Master again (after picking up the Nebula). And that's fine, I enjoyed it, de Bodard is always a good read.
Novelette and Short Story
"The Thing About Ghost Stories" novelette and the short story nominees "The Tale of Three Beautiful Raptor Sisters" and "The Rose MacGregor Drinking and Admiration Society" were all in Uncanny between July and December, and I recced them here. Kritzer good with The Feels, Vernon and Bolander both made me laugh. "When We Were Starless" I described as "classic" (here) and "The Court Magician" as an interesting metaphor (here). "Nine Last Days on Planet Earth" was compelling (here) and one of my nominees; "A Witch's Guide to Escape" (recced here) was also one of my nominees. "Nine Negro Teeth" I pegged as a front-runner and "If at First You Don't Succeed" I loved and nominated, but as a short story, oops (both here). Only Harmless Great Thing I just talked about in this very post, leaving, uh, "Last Banquet of Temporal Confections", which didn't grab me enough to rec, and "STET", which I also didn't rec but discussed in the comments here and I have come to agree with the inclusion of on the ballot, like, even if I wasn't entirely sold on the plot, the experimental format was interesting and memorable. Is that everything? Why did I decide to mix short stories and novelettes in this paragraph? Oh, right, because they're mixed together in the original posts.
My novelette ballot. Oof, this is hard. I've swapped the order of the first two a couple of times.
1 - “If at First You Don’t Succeed, Try, Try Again,” Zen Cho
2 - “Nine Last Days on Planet Earth,” Daryl Gregory
3 - “The Thing About Ghost Stories,” by Naomi Kritzer
4 - The Only Harmless Great Thing, by Brooke Bolander
5 - “When We Were Starless,” by Simone Heller
6 - “The Last Banquet of Temporal Confections,” by Tina Connolly
Prediction: I will be astounded if Only Harmless Great Thing doesn't take this.
My short story ballot. Also hard. Does it make sense that I ended up ranking STET above stuff I actually recced? I don't know, it'd be a more interesting win than if we give it to the Vernon or Pinsker stories, I mean, I'm a big fan of both of them but they didn't feel like awards-standout stories.
1 - “A Witch’s Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies,” Alix E. Harrow
2 - “The Tale of the Three Beautiful Raptor Sisters, and the Prince Who Was Made of Meat,” Brooke Bolander
3 - “The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington,” P. Djèlí Clark
4 - “STET,” Sarah Gailey
5 - “The Rose MacGregor Drinking and Admiration Society,” T. Kingfisher
6 - “The Court Magician,” Sarah Pinsker
Prediction: "Nine Negro Teeth" again, but "STET" a close second.
